Let Them Stare

Posting reviews has been slow as I recover from carpal tunnel release on both wrists. It’s going well, three weeks out, and I plan to catch up for the weeks I’ve missed. I’ve done plenty of reading, though, as that’s something I could do even when my hands were wrapped in bandages!

Let Them Stare (2025) by Jonathan Van Ness (of Queer Eye fame) and Julie Murphy (author of Dumplin’, Pudding’, and Pumpkin and many others) is a cute mashup of YA coming-of-age/ghost story/queer romance. I was also able to attend a book event hosted by Leah Johnson of Loudmouth Books (and author of You Should See Me in a Crown and Rise to the Sun) where Jonathan and Julie talked about the book and their co-authoring process.

Set in the small town of Hearst, Pennsylvania, the main character is Sully, a nonbinary 18-year old whose Mom is the mayor. Sully has just graduated high school and is ready to leave Hearst for New York City for a fashion internship they can’t wait to begin. They are tired of small-town attitudes and the difficulty many people, including relatives, have with their being nonbinary. They’ve sold their car to Brad, the only other out queer person they know, but who is so boring and conventional he is working for Sully’s Mom the mayor as a summer intern and in Sully’s head, they call him Bread.

When Sully’s internship evaporates before they can even get on the bus, they have to recalibrate. While seeing if they can get their old job back at the resale shop, they find a vintage handbag that they snap up immediately, but find out it’s inhabited by the ghost of a person named Rufus, a drag queen from the 1950s who has no memory of how they died. Without a car, though, Sully can’t do much so they enlist Brad to help figure out who Rufus really was and what happened to them, and help Sully’s Mom with some historical property research that is important to the town.

Sully, Brad, and Rufus embark on adventures that show Sully that there was more to Hearst than they ever imagined, and maybe there is more queer history right where they are. Jonathan and Julie said that their theme for the book was “Bloom where you’re planted”–since not everyone has the ability to leave the place they are from.

As to be expected, Let Them Stare was also fat-positive, as Sully’s best friend is described as a plus-size queen and I didn’t read anything that could be interpreted as anti-fat or diet culture.